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Pretoria- Financially needy students of the University of Pretoria will not have to pay the registration fee when registering for 2016, the institution announced on Monday.

“Students who qualify for NSFAS funding, students who submit letters from sponsors, and financially needy students who make the necessary financial arrangements with the university will be allowed to register without paying the initial fee on registration, provided that they meet all other criteria,” Vice Chancellor Cheryl de la Rey said in a statement.

“In addition, students in financial need who have outstanding residence fees will be considered individually for assistance should they meet all other residence placement criteria. Also, for students in financial need, the application fee will not be payable during 2016 for the 2017 academic year.”

De la Rey’s announcement follows Friday’s proclamation by President Jacob Zuma that there would be a zero percent increase in fees. Thousands of students took to the Union Buildings on Friday to protest against the fee increment.

The protest turned violent when some students started pelting police officers with rocks and water bottles.

De la Rey added that at UP, there would be no increase in 2016 in fees for all undergraduate, postgraduate and international students and there would also be no increase in residence accommodation fees, meal fees and any initial payments.

“To assist with meals, the university also undertakes to provide additional support to financially needy students. Furthermore, the university has substantially increased its own contribution to top up NSFAS funding by an amount of R20m, and to make these additional funds available to support poor students in 2016,” said de la Rey.

She maintained that no students would be singled out for participating in the protest action.

“The university management has agreed that, provided students continue to behave responsibly, no persons who participated in the mass protest action will be disciplined by the university or its affiliates. We appreciate the measure of order and discipline the leaders managed to maintain through the protests from Wednesday last week,” she said.

To assist students in catching up with academic time that was lost in order to ensure completion of exams, management had agreed to extend the time for the examination period to compensate for time lost during the protest action.

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